Talent, Recruitment and Employment – a Flexible Approach to Career Mapping

Hello there you wonderful people working in just about the most wonderful industry in the world. How are you? I’ve been invited to share some thoughts on today’s I Love Recruitment Blog and I have to say it’s a great honour to write for an award winning platform, well done to the guys running the I Love Recruitment Blog and to the fabulous contributors that have helped to make the blog such a success over the last couple of years.

I wanted to talk to you about career paths today. Mainly, is it possible to map a career path and how realistic is it that you will stick to this path?  I started off a career in marketing, with a view to rising up through the ranks – assistant, exec, manager, director. It was a very linear progression in my mind and I established a clear timeline of when I expected to achieve particular job roles. However, after four years in the world of work, I started to realise that my career path didn’t need to be so linear: it wasn’t about what job title I had, but it was about what skill sets I wanted to acquire and whether I could effectively map those skill sets. I love marketing and utilising channels to deliver ROI and tracking the work that I do. However I also like building relationships, so it was almost inevitable that I would deviate away from a purely marketing focused role and explore other avenues including sales and account management. Thankfully, I’ve been able to find organisations that have worked with me to to fit what I enjoy doing (and also what I am good at) to my particular skillsets. My roles have always adapted, shifted and moved to fit the requirements of not just me, but also the business. Is this the same with everybody though? I If I look at some of my colleagues, there are few that have had a rigid career path. Flexibility in what you want to do with your life is key and finding an employer willing to embrace flexibility in their workforce is also important.

There are always things you can do to refine your own skillsets. For example, at the IRP we have our Career Routeway that offers you professional qualifications to support your career development.  In addition to building your skills through qualifications, you also need to have an organisation that recognises your abilities and has the vision to allow you to explore and use your skillset to ensure that you develop your career and that their business is successful.

A flexible career path and topics like identifying high-achievers, or mapping innovative approaches to career path flexibility are all topics that will be discussed at an upcoming event we’re running on 24^th June in London called the Talent & Recruitment Employment Conference (TREC). Have a look at some of the agenda topics and maybe I’ll see you there and you can tell me how your career path has evolved and whether or not you believe you can effectively map out a career as I tried to do in my first forays into the world of work?  #TREC2014

Chris Howard

Head of Marketing, REC